Witchweed
Striga asiatica
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Witchweed
Identify Witchweed by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Root-parasitic on cereal crops (witchweed).
- Confirm leaf arrangement: Opposite.
- Confirm leaf shape: Lanceolate.
- Confirm flower colour: Red.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and nearby regions.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Striga asiatica
- Genus
- Striga
- Family
- Scrophulariaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Habitat
- Grasslands in open deciduous forests
- Distribution
- Tropical and South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia
- Found in India
- Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf arrangement
- OppositerecordedTwo leaves arise from the stem at the same point, facing each other.“Leaves are nearly opposite, narrowly lanceolate, about 1–3 centimetres (0.39–1.18 in) long, with successive leaf pairs perpendicular to one another.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Leaf shape
- LanceolaterecordedLong and narrow, tapering to a point, like a lance head.“Leaves are nearly opposite, narrowly lanceolate, about 1–3 centimetres (0.39–1.18 in) long, with successive leaf pairs perpendicular to one another.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
Characters marked “recorded” are for Witchweed itself; the rest are typical of the Scrophulariaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Redrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Raceme
- Fruit
- Capsule
Characters marked “recorded” are for Witchweed itself; the rest are typical of the Scrophulariaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Marathi
- पिवळा आग्या
About Witchweed
Witchweed (Striga asiatica) belongs to the Scrophulariaceae family, where it grows as a herb. In India it has been recorded in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and 10 other states. It grows in grasslands in open deciduous forests. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Uses
In practice it is harvested for fodder and used to hold soil and restore degraded ground.
Scrophulariaceae
Figwort family
Witchweed belongs to the Scrophulariaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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